Bird Profile
House Finch
The House Finch is the streaky red-headed finch that took over the continent in fifty years. It is also the bird most often misidentified as a Purple Finch, and the one most likely to arrive at your feeder sick.
The short answer
- A male House Finch has red confined to the forehead, eyebrow, throat and upper breast, with a brown cap and cheek behind it, and bold brown streaks down the flanks.
- The female is a plain gray-brown, blurrily streaked bird with no face pattern at all. That blank face is the fastest way to rule out a Purple Finch.
- Male color runs from deep red through orange to yellow depending on the carotenoid pigments in the food he ate while molting. A yellow House Finch is not a different species.
- Eastern House Finches all descend from a small number of caged birds released on Long Island around 1940. The eastern and western populations met on the Great Plains by the 1990s.
- They are the species most affected by house finch eye disease. Swollen, crusted eyes at your feeder mean take it down, clean it and leave it down for a week or two.
At a glance
- Scientific name
- Haemorhous mexicanus
- Length
- 5.1 to 5.5 in (13 to 14 cm)
- Wingspan
- 7.9 to 9.8 in (20 to 25 cm)
- Weight
- 0.6 to 0.9 oz (16 to 27 g)
- Range
- Continent-wide. Native to the West, introduced in the East in the 1940s.
- Favorite foods
- Black oil sunflower, sunflower hearts, nyjer
- Best feeder
- Tube feeder, hopper, platform
- At feeders
- Year-round, in flocks, all day long
The House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) is a small streaky brown finch about 5.5 inches (14 cm) long in which the male wears red on the head and chest and the female wears nothing distinctive at all. It is now one of the most abundant feeder birds in North America, present in almost every town and city on the continent, and it is the bird people most often mistake for a Purple Finch.
It arrived at that status in a strange way. The species was a bird of the Southwest, Mexico and California until pet dealers selling caged "Hollywood Finches" on the East Coast released their stock around 1940, when prosecution under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act loomed. Those birds bred on Long Island, spread, and met the westward-moving native population on the Great Plains within about fifty years.
This profile covers the identification problem in detail, the diet and feeder setup that suits them, their unusually variable male coloration, nesting in hanging baskets and porch light fixtures, and the eye disease that has shaped their populations since 1994.
How to identify a House Finch#
The male has red or orange-red on the forehead, over the eye as a broad eyebrow, on the throat and across the upper breast, plus a red rump that shows in flight. Behind and around that red are a plain brown cap and brown cheeks. The belly and flanks are dull whitish with heavy, blurry brown streaks, and the back is unstreaked warm brown.
The female is a plain, cold gray-brown bird, blurrily streaked below, with no eyebrow, no cheek patch, no wingbars worth noticing and no face pattern of any kind. The blankness is the field mark.
Both sexes have a short, deep, conical bill with a noticeably curved upper edge, a longish and only shallowly notched tail, and a small-headed, slim-bodied look. The song is a long, jumbled, rising warble that often ends in a harsh upslurred wheer.
House Finch vs Purple Finch#
This is the classic North American feeder identification problem, and the details below are the same ones used on the Purple Finch profile, so you can compare either way.
| Feature | House Finch | Purple Finch |
|---|---|---|
| Male color pattern | Red limited to forehead, eyebrow, throat, upper breast and rump | Raspberry wash over the whole head, breast, back and rump |
| Male cap and cheek | Plain brown, clearly separate from the red | Colored like the rest of the head, no brown cap |
| Flanks | Bold blurry brown streaks | Clean, or washed pink, essentially unstreaked |
| Undertail coverts | Finely streaked | Clean white |
| Female face | Plain, no pattern | Bold white eyebrow and dark cheek patch |
| Bill shape | Upper edge visibly curved | Upper edge straight, bill longer |
| Tail | Longer, shallow notch | Shorter, deeply notched |
| Build | Small-headed, slim, long-tailed | Big-headed, peaked crown, chunky, short-tailed |
| Where you see it | Towns, suburbs, parking lots, year-round | Conifer and mixed woods, at feeders mostly in winter |
The shortest version: a Purple Finch looks like a House Finch dipped in raspberry juice, and a House Finch looks like a brown bird wearing a red bib. If the flanks are streaked, it is a House Finch. Get the shape and the female face pattern down and you will stop needing the table.
In the West a third option applies. Cassin's Finch is a mountain bird with a bright red peaked crown contrasting with a paler nape, a straight-sided bill and crisp streaking. It overlaps with both other species in the Mountain West and Great Basin.
Use the females, not the males
Male finches vary in color and light plays tricks. Female House and Purple Finches, by contrast, differ in a way that does not change: Purple has a strong white eyebrow and a dark ear patch, House has a plain face. In a mixed flock, identify the females first and the males will sort themselves out.
Where and when you see them#
House Finches are now found from southern Canada to Mexico, coast to coast, with a gap only in parts of the far north and the deepest interior forest. They are conspicuously urban, more comfortable around buildings, parking lots and street trees than any other finch.
They are at feeders in every month of the year and typically arrive in flocks of 5 to 20 birds that stay for long stretches. Unlike goldfinches, they do not vanish and reappear with the seed crop. Unlike Purple Finches, they are not an irruptive winter guest. They are simply always there.
What they eat and the feeder setup#
House Finches are close to strictly vegetarian: seeds, buds, flower parts and fruit, with insects taken only incidentally. Nestlings are fed regurgitated seed, which is unusual among songbirds and is one reason cowbird chicks fare poorly in their nests.
| Food | Response | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Black oil sunflower | First choice | Thin hull suits their bill |
| Sunflower hearts | Equal favorite | No hulls, faster feeding, spoils when wet |
| Nyjer | Readily taken | They will share a finch feeder with goldfinches |
| Safflower | Taken, but less eagerly | Mild deterrent at best |
| Millet and milo | Mostly ignored | Kicked out onto the ground |
A standard tube feeder filled with black oil sunflower is all they need. They will also use hoppers, platforms, mesh feeders and finch feeders, and they will feed on the ground beneath any of them.
Because they come in flocks and stay, one feeder gets monopolized quickly. Two or three smaller feeders spread across the yard let chickadees and nuthatches get a turn, an arrangement covered in how many feeders and how far apart. If you specifically want more finches, the food and cover recipe is in how to attract House and Purple Finches.
Watch for feeders that never empty of finches
A permanently occupied tube feeder is also a permanently contaminated one. Finches feed for long spells with their faces at the port, so ports and perches accumulate more than most feeders. Wash and dry these feeders every two weeks minimum, and weekly in warm humid weather.
Behavior worth knowing#
Flocking. House Finches are social year-round and squabble constantly at feeders in short, low-stakes disputes: gaping bills, raised heads, brief chases.
Singing. Males sing from rooftops, wires and TV antennas nearly all year, including on mild winter days. The warble is longer and burrier than a goldfinch's and usually ends with that scratchy rising note.
Color signaling. Because carotenoid pigments come only from food, a male's redness reflects the quality of his diet during molt. Females tend to choose redder males, and drab yellow individuals still breed successfully.
Fearlessness. They nest and feed at close range around people, which is why they are the finch on the shopping center parking lot light fixture.
Nesting#
House Finches nest early and often, usually starting in March in much of the range. The nest is a shallow cup of grass, twigs, fine stems, feathers and sometimes string, placed in a startling variety of sites: hanging flower baskets, wreaths on front doors, dryer vents, ledges over porch lights, ivy on walls, conifers and cactus.
Clutches are usually 2 to 6 pale blue eggs with fine dark speckling. The female incubates for about 13 to 14 days, both parents feed the young, and the chicks fledge around 12 to 19 days after hatching. Two or three broods a season is normal.
If a pair builds in your hanging basket, the nest and eggs are protected by federal law and cannot legally be moved once eggs are laid. The practical answer is to water the basket carefully around the edge and use a different basket for the season.
Eye disease and population#
In the winter of 1993 to 1994, birders in the mid-Atlantic began reporting House Finches with swollen, crusted, weeping eyes. The cause was Mycoplasma gallisepticum, a bacterium already familiar in poultry. It swept through the eastern House Finch population over the following years and cut it substantially, and it now occurs across the continent and in other species including goldfinches and Purple Finches.
Infected birds are not usually killed by the infection itself. They go blind, cannot feed or avoid predators, and die of that.
If you see a finch with swollen or crusted eyes
Take every feeder down for one to two weeks, scrub them with hot soapy water, disinfect, rinse and dry completely, and rake up spilled seed and hulls underneath. Crowded feeders are where this disease spreads, so removing the gathering point is the intervention that matters. Full guidance is in house finch eye disease and there is a sick bird at my feeder.
Beyond the disease, House Finches are abundant and secure. Populations rose steeply during the eastern expansion, fell with the arrival of eye disease, and have been broadly stable since. They have no conservation designation of concern, and their main yard hazards are outdoor cats and window collisions.
A House Finch setup that works#
- A tube feeder with black oil sunflower, which is all the invitation they need.
- Two or three feeders spaced 15 feet (4.5 m) or more apart, so a finch flock does not shut out everything else.
- A cleaning routine every two weeks, tightened to weekly in warm weather, following how to clean a bird feeder.
- A hanging basket you are willing to lose if you want to watch a nest at close range.
- Eyes on the birds, not just the seed level. Finches are the early warning system for feeder disease in most yards.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the difference between a House Finch and a Purple Finch?
On males, look at where the red stops. A House Finch has red on the forehead, eyebrow, throat and upper breast only, with a brown cap and cheeks and heavy brown streaks down the flanks. A Purple Finch looks dipped in raspberry: the color washes over the whole head, back and breast, and the flanks are clean. On females, the Purple Finch has a bold white eyebrow and a dark cheek patch, while the House Finch's face is plain and unmarked.
Why is my House Finch orange or yellow instead of red?
Male House Finches get their red from carotenoid pigments in the fruits and seeds they eat while growing new feathers. A bird that molted on a poor carotenoid diet comes out orange or yellow. The color is honest signaling, and females generally prefer the reddest males, but a yellow bird is the same species and perfectly healthy.
What do House Finches eat?
Almost entirely plant food: seeds, buds, flower parts and fruit, with very few insects even in summer. They feed their nestlings regurgitated seed. At feeders they take black oil sunflower and sunflower hearts first, then nyjer, and they will crowd a tube feeder all day.
Why do House Finches have swollen or crusty eyes?
That is house finch eye disease, a conjunctivitis caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum. Infected birds go partly blind and usually die of starvation or predation rather than the infection. It spreads at feeders where birds press their faces against the same surfaces. Take feeders down for one to two weeks, scrub and disinfect them, and rake up the spilled seed below.
How do I keep House Finches from taking over my feeder?
You largely cannot, and the usual approaches are indirect. Safflower and striped sunflower slow them down a little. More effective is spreading the load: several small feeders spaced apart rather than one large one, so other species have somewhere to eat. House Finches are native birds and are protected, so exclusion is the only option.
Do House Finches migrate?
Western birds are mostly resident. Eastern birds are partly migratory, with some northern individuals moving south in winter, and feeder flocks shift in composition through the year. In practice you will have House Finches at your feeder in every month, though not always the same ones.